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6/23/2009

In recent weeks, the relationship between the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) and Formula 1 has grown increasingly fractured, until FOTA announced a week or so ago that they would form a breakaway championship next year. The big 3 reasons for this were money (budget caps), politics and freedom (technical). The only recognised teams left in the regular F1 championship for next year are now Williams and Force India. Presumably then, the FOTA championship will take over the niche that F1 has held within 2 years, and F1 will become a feeder category, because lets face it, nobody wants to see any competition that has a powerhouse like Force India a podium chance.

But more interestingly, what technical regulations will the FOTA championship have? Formula 1 has been vastly over regulated for a long time, curtailing engineering improvements to gradual aerodynamic improvements. There has been little innovation or real change since the pointy-up nose cone in the early 1990s. Soon after any team makes a real breakthrough, it is banned by the FIA who want a driver's series. If you want a driver's series, watch touring car racing. Formula 1 (or its FOTA replacement) should be about engineering the fastest possible car. Lets bring back some of the radical design ideas of the past...The Tyrrell P34 for example, which raced in 1976-77.